Welcome to the New Leaders
By Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP and Anjana Kundu, MBBS, MD, DA, ABIHM
Welcome new board members, committee chairs and committee members. We are embarking on the next chapter of our young society following our second election. Our membership has grown, and energetic young members are adding significant value to the Society.
Dr. Franklin Chiao has started a Case of the Month feature on the website. Please take a look, and consider sending your interesting cases to Franklin for consideration. Our hope is that this feature will grow into a fun, interactive, and educational tool for teaching and learning. This is mine and Dr. Anjana Kundu’s last newsletter as Editor and Assistant Editor (hurray), but not our last contribution to the society (sorry you can’t get rid of us that easily). I am delighted that we have such outstanding editors to take over. In this issue of the SPPM Newsletter enjoy a recap of the 2017 SPPM meeting, the SPA meeting, and an introduction to our new editors (Dr. Yuan Chi Lin, Dr. Wick Kraemer and Dr. Meredith Rockney Brooks), and our new Communications Committee Chair, Dr. Deepa Kattail. In addition, there is an update from Dr. Rae Brown, who is the current Chair of the FDA Subcommittee on Anesthesia and Analgesia on the recent FDA activities in regards to opioids, and a Case Discussion on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
As we move forward, one of our biggest hurdles will be encouraging all clinicians involved in pain management in children to feel welcome in the Society. Drs. Kost-Byerly and Robert Wilder will be looking at our by-laws to see if, and how we can achieve membership parity. Please encourage all of your colleagues who are involved with, or have an interest in pediatric pain medicine to consider joining the Society. We grow and thrive together, not apart.
We would love to have more diverse content at our annual meetings, on our website and in our newsletters. We continue to increase the reach of our Facebook and Twitter feeds, but need all of you to feel engaged. If you are not, tell us how we can improve. If you have colleagues from psychology, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, music or art therapy, neurology, psychiatry, or any other field who have research, information or ideas they would like to share, let us know. As a Society we have much to do, from battling the opioid epidemic, to improving pain treatments, preventing misuse, and chronic pain - let’s do it together.
Welcome again to all our new members and committee chairs, hope you all have a wonderful summer and we look forward to seeing you in Phoenix in March 2018. We are currently hard at work creating an outstanding program.
- Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP: [email protected]
- Anjana Kundu, MBBS, MD, ABIHM: [email protected]
